Test Match Special - The Rise of Haas (from F1: Chequered Flag)

Episode Date: April 17, 2026

We’re bringing you something different today which we think you’ll like - an episode from the BBC’s Formula 1 podcast, F1: Chequered Flag.With the Formula 1 season on an enforced break, the Chequered Flag team pay a visit to the home of Haas F1 with the team currently sitting fourth in the F1 constructors’ standings. So how are F1’s smallest team performing so well? Izzy Hammond and Harry Benjamin investigate.They visit the team’s HQ to speak with Team Principal Ayao Komatsu about their success. Plus, just how did Ollie Bearman escape from that huge accident in Japan unharmed and what are the team’s ambitions for the future? Izzy and Harry also answer your F1 hot takes. Could Gianpiero Lambiase become McLaren’s Team Principal in the future, following the announcement of his switch from Red Bull in 2028? And which driver is the most likely to be a reality TV star?F1 returns next for the Miami Grand Prix at the start of May, with live commentary across the 5 Live network and BBC Sounds. If you enjoy this episode of F1: Chequered Flag, find more by searching ‘F1’ on BBC Sounds, and make sure to subscribe to get the latest episode every week.

Hi TMS listeners. My name is Izzy Hammond and I'm part of the F1 Checkered Flag family this season, the BBC's Formula One podcast. Every week of the F1 season, the checkered flag team bring previews and expert analysis of every race, interviews with the sports biggest names and exclusive insight into the twists and turns of the F1 season. Now, I know the cricketing year is well underway with the start of the County Championship and the IPL in full swing, but we wanted to jump into the TMS feed today to give you a taster of our podcast. The Formula One season is currently on an unprecedented break, so that's given us the chance to visit some of the teams, including HASS, which is where we are for this episode, speaking with their team principal, Ayo Komatsu. So whether you're a huge F1 fan or new to the sport,

this is a great time to join us. If you like what you hear, search F1 on BBC Sounds, and make sure to subscribe to get the latest episode from us every week. To deal with this huge regulation change is monumental task. So, yeah, Yeah, I wasn't expecting us to be sitting where we are now. That was a big, big accident. You know, the speed delta was huge. But now, I'm saying, these guys are athletes and then the safety standards of these Formula Onkers

has come and leaps. It's unbelievable. So yeah, it was amazing that he walked out from such a big accident. Should we talk about some hot takes? Should we do some hot takes? Oh, how's that for a second, right? Okay, I will do the first one for you.

This is from Alex. Red Bull are in a spiral losing GP, future team principals. question mark. Izzy Hammond, we're in this enforced break, no racing in April. We got to wait till Miami in May. Yes.

I was getting a bit bored to do about you. So I thought I'd take us to Hasse. Love it. Yeah, it's a lovely place to be. And you know what? We're gonna go in straight away because we found the team boss Ayokamatsu. Hello, Ayah.

Hi there, how are you? Very well, how are you? Yeah, good, thank you. Good. Now, I mean, let's go straight into it because we've had three races, you're fourth in the Constructors' Championship, And I know you're also a Coventry City fan, right?

And they look like they're on the cusp of getting promotion. You must be on Cloud 9 right now. You must be riding high. What start to the year? No, no. Honestly, start of the year has been fantastic because it's a huge, huge challenge for everyone, especially for teams like us. We are still the smallest team in the F1 grid

to deal with this huge regulation change is monumental task. So, yeah, I wasn't expecting us to be sitting where we are now, but it's just really credit to everyone's. very hard work, not just over the winter for the previous years. It seems like you've dealt with the new changes and the new regulations really, really well. Your two drivers, you've got Ocon and Bearman. What's it like working with the two of them? Ah, no, really good. Now, really enjoy. I think we got a really good team, and then, you know, both drivers, they understand, you know, what they need to do for the team. And then you can see on

the truck, you know, how they work together and they're not just on the truck, you know, behind the scenes. I'll work with engineers, simulators, anything. You know, they are really a part of the team, and they are the central part of the team and driving us forward. Now, for those who can't see us, we are in the Hasse race base. There's a bit of pit stop practice going on.

And I'm all suited up. I've got the full gear on. So there's a bit of pressure on Ockon and Bermann. If they don't perform, I'm ready to roll. If you can fit in, yes. I think that's a challenge. That is a challenge. But you may fit in, but you may not get out.

Well, you've got, Esteban and Ollie. I'm not going to get out. They're quite tall for drivers on the grid. They're very tall, but they're not very wide. Okay, rude. Wow. Wow.

I love that. That's all we've got time for with I commandant. I'm afraid. I'm absolute pleasure. We wish you all the best for Coventry City. Unbelievable. Okay, back to serious chat. Speak of Ollie Bearman.

Last time we saw you guys in action, Japan had that big crash. How is he first? Was he okay? And how is that affecting sort of preparations for the next race? No, no, he's okay. That was a big, big accident. You know, the speed, there's a lot of. was huge. But these guys are athletes and then the safety standards of these formula

anchors has come and leaps. It's unbelievable. So yeah, he was amazing that he walked out from such a big accident. But he's fine. He's recovering. He's rehabilitating and he's getting ready for Miami. He'll be fine. Yeah, it's really impressive because he was sort of limping as he got out. But then he was pretty quick to come on social media and say he's absolutely fine, which is, I mean, it's quite impressive at a speed like that. Honestly, it's a testament to not just our car, but just the FIA governing body and then really driving that safety standards. Every time some accident happens or something less than ideal happens, we learn from it, then we make improvement. And then this year, again, part of the biggest challenge was the

homologation of the chassis, the standard that what we need to pass for the crash test, has been raised massively. And then all these things are making huge difference. And I was really happy to see that already came out, essentially just with a bit of bruise, which is a bit of understatement but still it's a it's a testament to all the work it's done in the background it's really impressive to see now quickly back to you because we we briefly spoke before this about your life here back at base what does it look like for you what is a nine to five for you there's no nine to five so there's a yeah there's a what time does your alarm clock off in the morning no no alarm card goes off because of my kids yeah i do then i mean you

can do school runs in the morning because i'm away so so often it's really nice that when i'm back here in UK. I can take my kids to school first. Then I come here. So I come here actually a bit later than everybody else. I make it here probably like quarter past nine. But then it's just, yeah, the day, honestly, it's very, very important to be present and then really, because I spend half the time on the road, the time I'm back here, I really need to catch up on the people, understanding of what's going on really listening to them. Because as I always say, if I'm not, if I'm disconnected from what's going on the ground, I cannot lead the team. So I really needs to be listened to them and understand what they need, you know, what I need to put in place

for them to perform better. It's been so impressive sort of seeing you kind of in this team principal role because for those you don't know, obviously you've come up the race engineer route, right? And we're seeing that more and more now, don't you think up and down the paddock kind of those, the mavericks that we used to have, you know, your Christian Horner's, your Flavio Briottories, there then that kind of role, you're Eddie Jordans. It's not really there anymore. You're seeing more and more engineers becoming team. principles. Why do you think that is? I don't know. I don't think there's like a one-fits-all type of approach. I think every team we go 11 teams on the grid and then each team's got different challenges,

right? So again, that the way for instance, the McLaren set up, you got Andrea Steyer as the team principal, Zach Brown as CEO, and then Zach takes care of business side, Andrea takes care of sporting side. And then it's not like that model is going to work for everybody. That's clearly working for McLaren and what we need in our team, you know, when Gene decided to appoint me, as a team principal is partly because I've been here since day one. And so we really needed to understand, you know, what's the strengths and weakness of this team? How can we harness it better? So I don't think there's one rule to say, okay, this is modern F1, the team principal needs to be

ex-engineer. I don't think so, but each team has got different challenge. And also they all got different setups. R.B is the same. Alampa made my old boss, he's the TP, but then they have a CEO, Peter Bayer, running the CEO side of the business. It's actually a strength that you're a smaller team and that you know the team so well and you're at the top and actually it's a bit, works more like a family that you all know each other and actually makes it run a bit more smoothly. Yeah, definitely there's a strength and benefit too. There's always pros and cons, right? And then in terms of our team, you know, because we are so small, if we're not working as a team, if we are not completely integrated, working together, we're pushing things forward, we just don't no chance.

I'm sure bigger team has got its own challenge, but our challenge is like, okay, we get best out of what we got, but then in the background, we need to keep improving the capacity, capability of this team. So there is definitely a growth, but for me, you cannot grow too quickly. You got to really keep the focus on what we are here to do, and keep the efficiency and focus and keep growing at the manner

which we can, let's say, sustain, and keep that focus is very, very important. So I wonder then, And this is a bit of a cheeky ask. But we've seen in the news last week that John Piero Lambeiasey is going to make his way to McLaren in a couple of years. There's a lot of rumours about he could be another one that goes from Engineer to Team Principal in the long run. Obviously Red Bull and McLaren, they are bigger teams. They've been around a lot longer.

But for that kind of transition, if he sent you a text, what kind of advice would you impart? I don't know if I can give any advice, to be honest. Like I said, you know, the situation at McLaren is very, very, very important. different to our situation. And also his strengths and weakness is, I'm sure, it's different to my strengths and weaknesses. Like, for instance, he's going to a new team, right? Whereas when I got my job here, I've been with the team for, what, eight years, seven years at that point. So I knew everyone. I knew the strengths and weakness of this organization. So his challenge would be very different, but I'm sure he's a highly capable individual. So I'm sure he can, you know,

he can tackle the new challenges very well. Now, we've been talking about the fact that we've not had any F1 to watch the last couple of weeks. Have you had any sort of break or have you just been working flat out? No, it's very, very important to maximise this break. It's not really a break. But no, it's because, like I said, we are such a small team. And then this challenge is over facing a new regulation has been huge. Right.

So then, like I said, it didn't just start over the winter. You know, we are doing a parallel development last year, so nobody really had time to really slow down. Everybody's been really working flat out, trying to get the car to design, build, hit the shake down, test, then three races. And then every time we send the car, we are learning something new. But we had to operate on the race weekend, right? So there's lots of things that we wanted to improve fundamentally, but we couldn't because we just had to support every single race weekend. So those are the things really we need to focus on now to put better foundation on so that we can hit the Miami running at the higher, let's say, state. Yeah, I mean, there's never really off-time as there in Formula One in the modern time, but surely you've found a bit more time to do some rock climbing.

No, because I'm a bit injured at this minute. No, not you as well. No rock climbing. Is it limiting you? No, honestly, last time I went climbing gym was in actually Melbourne. Oh, yeah. Is that where you injured yourself? No, no, no, no. I enjoyed myself last week in this football team's training ground.

Ah, no. Less than that, the better than. But seriously, like, climbing, you know, I take my climbing shoes everywhere in the world. But like China, Japan with the session times, et cetera, I just haven't at any time. But I'm still trying to do training so that when I can hit the climbing gym, I can still climb. You and Berman both injured. It's not good. No, but only, you know, he had a 50 G shunt, right?

He came away better than me. You know, I didn't have a 1G shant. Then I still managed to toe my muscles. So it goes to show he's the athlete. I'm not. Yeah, exactly. Well, look, I, we're running out of time with you. As we've said, next race is Miami.

It's been a great start to the year. We have only have three races. We're hearing all these things about tweaks, the regulations going forward. But just for you guys, hopes, dreams, expectations for Miami and onwards. I think Miami is going to be a pretty tough challenge, I think because,

You know, these two races we couldn't do. I'm sure other people are planning to bring an upgrade on. So I'm sure people will be bringing lots of upgrade to Miami. So, you know, the pecking order, that can change a lot. And it's a sprint weekend as well. So again, having had, let's say, one month not racing to then hit the ground running, FB1, which is only one hour, then go for sprint quality.

We just got to be on it from the world goal. That's the challenge as well. And then let's, let's, Let's see where we are in terms of competitiveness, but we just got to focus on ourselves, how we need to do our job the best as possible. Brilliant. Well, look, Ayakamatsu, thank you so much for joining us. If you have a slightly taller, bigger front jack for Miami, it's me.

So best of luck with that. And if you want me to be a driver, clearly got a got on a diet. Thank you very much for that. But I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Harry, this is very exciting because Io has let us step.

stick around. We're in a pretty cool location. We're also sat on the weirdest chairs ever. Well, they're not chairs, their wheels. They're, their tires. They are. And I'm a lot more stable than you are. I could go at any minute. And that's part of the fun. That is part of the fun. But he has also let me keep on to the race suit. You were going to say keep the suit, but you know you can't actually keep it on. And I'm going to see if I can just walk out the door when we finish with it on. I feel they will notice. Quite possibly. But I'm going to get to hedge my bets. You're not very subtle as a person. You're sort of big. bigger than everyone. I'm really. I'm getting a lot of heat today. Yeah. What

yeah. Well speaking of, shall we, uh, should we talk about some hot takes? Should we do some hot takes? Oh, how's that for a second? Okay, I'll do the first one for you. This is from Alex. Red Bull are in a spiral losing GP future team principal question mark. Well, I mean, we, we spoke about this a little bit with with Ayakamatsu, didn't we? John Perro-Lambay-A-C, long-time race engineer for Max Verstappen. Bit of a legend. We'll be off to McLaren. Not in that same role. It's going to be chief racing officer in, in 2028. So we still actually going to stick around at Red Bull for a little bit longer before he actually goes.

But I mean, you're right. It is a bit of a mass exodus at Red Bulls spanning the last few years. You know, people like Jonathan Wheatley, Christian Horner, GP now all gone. The talk is all constantly Max Stappen's going to go as well. But I think the GP, he's been there a long time. And he is hugely respected. And he's worked his way up through the ranks as well. I used to be at Force India back at the day in their different iterations.

But I think what's most impressive about him is that he kind of, he took on Max Verstappen from his first ever race, where he won the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix. And together they've kind of formed this sort of formidable partnership where you hear them kind of bicker like an old married couple on the team radio. But that I think just means they get on incredibly well. He knows how to work and read somebody of the caliber of Max Verstappen. So future team principle, absolutely.

I think when he goes to McLaren, I wonder if it's going to be a bit of a slow transition phase where Andrea Stella might well be going on to Pasture's new, may want a new challenge. Because part of GP's job at McLaren is going to be absorbing some of Stella's roles that he just doesn't have the time to do anymore. Oh, wow. So maybe that's true then. Maybe it is, wow, interesting. GP for Team Principal, maybe 20, 2030. Yeah, sure.

Lucky McLaren. I know. I'd say that. Yeah. Okay, would you like another one? Go on. Let's do it. Jay says, Alonzo walks away midseason due to ongoing horrible.

car vibrations says life's too short. I mean, Alonzo's never going to walk away. How much fun can it be though when you're pounding around at the back, your wrists are hurting? Like, wait, he has now managed to see the check of flag. But how much fun can that be? He's just out of kids. Yes, his new dad. He's going to turn 45 in the summer. I mean, I don't think he's lost any talent. It's all on Alonzo, whether he feels like he's still got enough to give. But also, how do you stay motivated? when this was supposed to be the year, right? Adrian Newee coming in,

all the money in the world, chapped to Aston Martin, and they're at the back. And it's not working. And I think they will improve and they will get better. But is it going to be too little too late for Fernando Alonso?

The longer this goes on for, the longer I'm inclined to agree. But then again, he's Fernando Alonzo, and he's superhuman. What is F1 without Fernando Alonzo? Can it exist without him at this point? I don't think it can. F1 will cease to exist if Fernando Alonzo leaves.

I can see him because. having a team boss. Oh my God, he would be amazing. I reckon he, I hear Aston Martin, might be looking for a new team principal. Okay, this might be working out. Fantastic. Let's hope that that's what he's going to do and he doesn't actually leave forever. Next one, Emma.

Now, this is my favourite hot take that we've ever had. All F1 teams should enter one car for the Nureberg ring 24 hours or LeMont with their drivers. Yes, please. Hard agree. Unbelievable. 100%. I mean, they just had a GT race at the weekend where, because Max Rastapens got his own team, and he was there just kind of just kind of.

kind of overseeing things. We obviously know he's, he wants to do the 24-hour Nuremberg ring and he's going to do it. Lance Stroll has now put his name in the ring to do more GT racing. Well, can you blame him? He must, he wants to try and score points somewhere. Fair. I absolutely agree. Because normally what, when that kind of racing, you get one car and you have like two or three drivers sharing it, right? So imagine we're at Hasse. I'd back a Hasse GT entry with Bearman and Ockon. They're both similar heights. Around six foot, I think. That's what you want, similar seat sizes. Quick in, quick out. That's the transition you want. Hard agree. Yeah, I love that. I'm all for that.

And then from Joe, this is Russell's last season at Mercedes. Vestappen will retire and Hamilton will return to Mercedes. Wow, triple whammy. That's a lot. Give me it one more time. Okay, so Russell's last season at Mercedes. No, I think I disagree there. Well, does it become his last season at Mercedes if Kimmy Antonelli suddenly

becomes the boy wonder that he was built to be and absolutely wipes the floor with. George Russell. These are all just hypotheticals. And then it's, it's suddenly it's Antonelli's team. Does that force Russell to look elsewhere? Does he then go to? Where does he go? This is what I'm saying. A red bull. Red Bull's not as appealing as it once was. But if, if there's a gap, does he go? What was the rest of the take? Vestappen will retire. Well, I can see that happening. We all know that's going to happen. Hamilton will return to Mercedes. No. No, I think he ends. Hamilton ends his career at Ferrari. Yeah, but not yet. He's not done yet. I think he's got a year or two.

left but Hamilton ends his career at Ferrari. It's every boy's dream, every Formula One driver's dream to race for Ferrari. Spastin Vettel said that and after that, well, Vettel went on, Astor Martin and I think that was a bit of a damp squib of an end for him to be honest. So maybe Hamilton will leave Ferrari at some point and then maybe Russell to Ferrari. Oh, I'm just saying, I'm just saying it could happen. The driver market, I think majority of the drivers are out of contract at the end of this year. So I think the driver market, Seriously, it could be mayhem. Big old switch around.

I'm excited. Speak of Lewis Hamilton. I don't know if you saw during the Japanese Grand Prix weekend. Actually, you've driven a lot of cool cars. So is Lewis Hamilton. Have you driven, like Lewis Hamilton, a Ferrari F40 Tokyo Drift style? I have not and I'm very jealous.

I mean, he put this clip up on Instagram. It's incredible. But then there was one clip with just him. Then there was another clip with somebody in the past Kim K. Kim K. Is that Kim Kardashian confirmed? Yeah, that's a hard launch.

And that's a hell of a launch. In an F40 around Tokyo. That is so unbelievably cool. You can't trump that as a date, can you? Oh, he's absolutely nailed it. When do you think she's going to come to the paddock? I was just thinking that actually, when are we going to see a car crash? Which one?

Miami. Oh, she's so going to be in Miami. Yeah, 100%. They're like you get on all the celebs at Miami. Yeah, she'll be there. Could Kim K be in Miami with Lewis Hamilton? I think so. Do we think she appreciated the F40 drive?

because I can't quite put it into words how cool that was. So, I mean, you've driven like cool Ferraris, maybe not quite the F40. Not quite the F40. You'll get there. Thank you. But it's always great for the driver. But as more often than not passenger, I've actually had Olly Bearman take me around Silverston in like a BMW M2 competition.

And I wanted to be sick. I needed a brown paper bag. It was that bad being in the passenger seat. So I don't think she had a good time. But an F40. I think I would cry. But hey, great for a bit of PR. Yeah, very true.

It's done its job. It is everywhere. Well, we'll see who else. Actually, did you also see then that a lot of the drivers, they do this stuff for F1 at the start of the year where they get asked these questions and one was, who, which driver do you think is most likely to be in a reality series? I did see this. And a couple of them, Orlando Norris's name was floating around a fair bit.

But again, timely, because we're at Hasse. Estaband Ockon, with the shade. Keeping up with the Hamilton's. Love that from him. If that doesn't confirm Kim Kay, I don't know what does. Yeah. Do you agree? Do you think it's sort of Hamilton or Norris or who would you put in a reality show?

I think, yeah, I would go at this point, Hamilton. Yeah. I think people will say Norris because he's young. We could see Norris on Love Island. I could. Yeah. I could. Yeah.

But then you got quite a few, like Kimmy's super young as well. I'm not sure. I'm not sure he's the Love Island type. No. Alonzo. I would pay to see that. If you retire this year. I would pay to see that.

On like I'm a celebrity or something. Big Brother? On the bake-off. Okay. Alonzo on the bake-off. Bake-off. Okay, final one. Traitors.

Who would you put? Who'd make the best traitor? I think I asked Odie Berman this once and he had no idea what I was talking about. It's such a good question. One of the best shows on the BBC. And Claudia Winkerman, ex and host, traitor. Best traitor out of the entire grid. Oh, I put you on the spot here.

Yeah, because you've got to think who's going to be sneaky. I wonder, I feel like an Alex. Alex Albon, you wouldn't know where to stand because he's got, he's so lovely. Yeah. But he might stand in the back. Or a Carlos Sines. I was thinking signs, but I wonder whether you'd suspect him too much because he's very engineering minded.

Yeah, Albon's sort of so nice that he wouldn't be a traitor. He wouldn't be a traitor. And then bam, he's a traitor. Albon, Trater. Albon. Love that. Nice. Right, that is all we have time for on today's check of flag extra.

Next week on the check of flag feed back at base is going to be here giving you a behind the scenes look at all things Cadillac. So make sure you're subscribed to BBC Sounds. Just search F1 on BBC Sounds and you will find it there. And in terms of F1 action, we're in this break at the moment. But Five Lives coverage will be back in a few weeks' time across the Miami weekend. So look out across the network for live coverage of every single session. And it's a sprint weekend as well.

So we get straight into it. But for now, I think we'll say goodbye, Izzy. See you later. Bye. first ball of this series. All the cricket you laugh. Check, Ralphie Dominion. It lives on BBC Sounds.

Smash straight back down the ground. This girl. Here ball by ball coverage of the biggest competitions on the domestic and international circuits. It's a ball cricket and it's the huge one. Jeez. Tettle down, tough. Sorry, mate.

Cricket on Five Live on Five Live Sport. Oh, blibing every ball of this. Listen on BBC Sounds.